GEOFF WARD
Reviews
What a beautiful title for a book, and so appropriate. While slowly letting myself drift in and out of each story or poem, I was able to just fully enjoy and treasure the journey; like being on a raft - one on which I could feel the sun, sense the warmness, and was comfortable in letting it take me wherever the words flowed. The places I ended up were mysterious parts of my mind and heart that were awakened by Geoff’s powerful, touching and subtle probing thoughts. I’m still exploring. The 'raft of dreams' seems to be one which launches and leaves you happily in the ‘wonder world’. Thank you. It is a great place to be.
JENNY KILE, MYSTERIOUSWRITINGS.COM
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Some quotes from 'Gently between the worlds', a very perceptive review of A Raft of Dreams. Follow the link below to read the full review:
Essayist, poet, short story writer, photographer, songwriter and musician Geoff Ward continues with his many enchanting surprises with the recent release of a collection of short stories and poems entitled A Raft of Dreams (2015). Each work in the collection is like a shooting star: although short-lived and dazzling, they leave a lasting impression on one’s mind’s eye...
The seven stories and thirty-two poems in A Raft of Dreams beautifully capture both some of Ward’s philosophy toward life as well as many of the writer’s obvious loves. There is a mystic quality to nearly every piece in the collection...
Combining elements of mysticism and life philosophy, Ward also ventures into the realm of the muse: what motivates people in life? ...
Ward’s poetry contains echoes of some of the mysticism that shows up in his stories and one still finds references to nature, standing stones, and other obvious attractions of Ward’s. However, more importantly is his focus on the interconnected nature of life...
DAN STUDER, NOTES FROM AN ECLECTIC READER
'...a West Cork poet who has strong opinions about his craft and draws on his local landscape to feed through into his literary work.'
CORK EVENING ECHO
This book deserves to be a classic - well written and thought provoking, Geoff Ward takes the reader on a mind blowing sweep of subjects all linked by the unique form of the spiral, a design that he makes clear is at the heart of nature and existence.
SIMON BRIGHTON, AMAZON
There is a lot to take in and think about in this book. This is not one of those books light on detail and long on padding. The style can be very dense at times, with virtually every paragraph and sentence loaded with something to think about. The book doesn’t lend itself to skim reading or bedtime reading; it demands far more attention than that. In fact, it demands a degree of study and thought.
I certainly learnt an awful lot about the spiral from this book and it did provide a wide ranging insight into themes that I had not previously considered.
TIM JONES, MERCIAN GATHERING
Rather than take an intransigent position on hard-nosed, Government-funded science on the one hand, or facile, New Age musings on the other, Ward bravely unites both, ultimately positing the likelihood of a far broader, more radical branch of science emerging from each. This grounded in the concept of consciousness being a gestalt, or uniting, human experience, rather than one subjective to the individual. Ward claims this discovery can only be positive, if only we’d wake up and smell the primordial soup. Only then will Man see how Life exists because it must – not by accident or default.
There is a quite beautiful metaphor in the spiral being the form nature automatically graduates to, radiating out and drawing in energy forever. Let us hope – if Ward’s conclusions are even close – we can use the so far untapped dynamism of our spiral cortex to swim away from an otherwise inevitable descent down the plughole of existence.
MARK ANDRESEN, READYSTEADYBOOK.COM
This brings together years of research into the fundamental importance of the spiral in every aspect of life. Geoff Ward explores all these connections and more in a truly fascinating and mind-stretching read.
PILGRIMS MIND BODY SPIRIT
This multi-layered approach to writing a book is not dissimilar to that of an artistic novelist, creating a form which tells its own story above and beyond the narrative. In this case, the spiral form of the text leads us through an increasingly deep set of ideas, pulling us in from geometry, through science, to philosophy ... Spirals becomes a journey of intellectual exploration, deeply personal, yet written with the objectivity of a thinking, independent journalist ... it attempts to present an hermetic springboard to enable the reader to transcend to a higher level of contemplation. The path of the Initiate. This is not everyone's bag, it must be said, but there will be those who find such a book a refreshing change in this age of dumbed-down supermarket bookstores.
ANDY LLOYD, DARK STAR
